Thematic Subject Area III: Towards a Democratic Response
Working Group 12
Promoting Democracy and Accountable Government

March 8th, the International Summit on Democracy and Terrorism will host sixteen member working group with the task of examining what is good governance, and why it is crucial in the age of global terrorism. Recognising that both political instability and authoritarianism can create conditions in which terrorist movements and their extremist ideologies flourish, the following issues will be examined:

• Whether good governance can contribute to the fight against terrorism? If so, how can it be promoted in an effective manner?
• How to further democratic reform in countries where a lack of democracy has led to instability and conflict.
• How can weak or failed states create effective structures of governance?
• What are the obstacles to democratic reform and, how much pressure must be exercised to overcome them?
• Is the idea of good governance in line with the notion of `regime change´?

The conclusions of this working group and 16 others will be incorporated into the Agenda of Madrid, which will be published on March 11th, 2005.

Working group members will include:

Working Group Coordinator:

• Ghia Nodia (Georgia), chairman of the Caucasus Institute for Peace, Democracy and Development, Georgia. Democracy activist, as well as academic expert in security, state-building and democratisation in the Caucasus. Editor of the Journal of Democracy.

Members:

• Emma Bonino (Italy), member of the European Parliament. Member of the committee on foreign affairs, subcommittee on human rights. Worldwide activist for human and civil rights. Initiator of the 2001 campaign to include women in the government of Afghanistan.
• Emmanuel Gymah-Boadi (Ghana), executive director at the Ghana Center for Democratic Development. Member of the governing council of Transparency International in Ghana. Author of Democratic Reforms in Africa (CDD Press, 2004).
• John Biehl (Chile), director of the Colombia and the Andean Region for the International Crisis Group. Formerly Secretary General of the Presidency of Chile, as well as senior executive for International IDEA, Stockholm. Numerous publications on development and democratic institutions.
• Fernando Cepeda (Colombia), professor of political science at the University of Los Andes, Colombia. Former Ambassador and Minister of Colombia. Author of many books about corruption, economic reform, finance and international relations.
• Larry Diamond (USA), senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. Expert on democratic development in the Middle East and U.S. foreign policy. Senior government adviser. Author of, among many other publications, Developing Democracy (Johns Hopkins, 1999).
• Stephen Heintz (USA), president of The Rockefeller Brothers Fund. Founding director of Demos, as well as executive vice president of the EastWest Institute, where he worked extensively throughout Eastern and Central Europe on issues such as economic reform and civil society.
• Rami Khouri (Jordan-Líbano), executive editor of The Daily Star, Beirut. Internationally syndicated political columnist, whose prime interests are the politics and government of the Middle East. Host of Encounter, a weekly current affairs show on Jordan television.
• Ivan Krastev (Bulgaria), chairman of the Centre for Liberal Strategies, Bulgaria. Director of the International Commission on the Balkans, which seeks to ease the Balkans’ integration into the European Union. Author of numerous publications.
• Daoub Kuttab (Palestinian Auth.), journalist and media activist, founder and director of the Institute of Modern Media, Al-Quds University, Palestine. Writings has been published throughout the Middle East. Executive director of many films. Initiator of numerous media projects in the Arab world.
• Grygoriy Nemyria (Ukraine), director of the Center for European and International Studies, National University, Kiev. Expert on Ukraine’s relationship with the European Union. Chairman of the board of the International Renaissance Foundation, which promotes an open society in the Ukraine